The Cycle
by TheTimeKing
Summary: Times have changed. Where the skies were blue, they now are gray. Where green hills once rolled, a wasteland takes its place. Now, Sonic and his friends have only so much time before the last of the mobians cease to exist. Their fate lies with in the twists and turns that ultimately decide if the cycle will ever continue... Rated T for language and violence. Review please!
1. The Bunker

Chapter one:

What ever was left of the food that sonic held in his hand, they were enough. Sonic could almost feel his stomach eating itself. He was starting to thin, his ribs showing a little bit more each day, not only did he have to feed himself, but he had to feed 10 other survivors, he had one rotten apple, a half eaten chocolate bar, a box of uncooked pasta with no water to boil it with. If the virus didn't finish their friends off, then hunger would. Soon he found the bunker. It was built during the mobian-overlander war. `It was used as a fort and then it was turned into a memorial, along with the other bunkers, cellars, and trenches. Sonic turned the latch on the door. It creaked slowly, revealing the survivors inside. Blaze, Silver, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Silver, Amy, Sally, and Antoine. These were all that was left of the great kingdom. All of them hungry, tired, and drained of hope. He sat down by them on the floor, covered in dust, dirt, and gun powder from the old war. He began to dull out food. A piece of apple, a slab of chocolate, and 3 noodles of uncooked spaghetti. They all smiled as they took their share. Sonic sat down, held the first noodle in his hand and broke a tiny piece off. He swallowed the corny tasting bits of pasta when he heard a sound. It was a small moan, a muffled grumble. It sounded burnt, raspy, dry, and dead.

"Quiet!" He said to everyone. Everyone knew what was going on. They're were zombies outside. everyone piled into the corner far away from the door. Knuckles and Amy prayed while Tails and Cream held their breath, trying within their will to stay silent. Then they're heard more noise. It sounded like rusty hinges squeaking. Then Sonic realized his crucial mistake: He left the bunker door open. Maybe the zombies weren't as smart as they thought? Maybe they would just leave the door alone, and walk on to roam the never ending barren waste land. They were dead wrong. The door flung open hitting the bunker wall with a squeaky crash. Then something fell from the hatch above. A burnt corpse, it's skin burnt charcoal black and it's barely existing eyes glowing with the radioactive chemicals of the nuclear matter it had been rolling around him. The corpse was so charge with radioactive particles that it would make a Geiger counter explode from a mile away. The body was tall, it looked like an overlander, but it was much too tall, a human perhaps? Whatever it was, or used to be, didn't matter. What matter was that the person that once lived in that body had been evicted by the virus. The body shrieked with an eerie moan and began to stumble toward them. Sonic tried to protect everyone else, but it was no use. A tear fell from his eye as he prepared for death. Then all of a sudden, a yell like a war cry. They heard a large thump and then something, or someone, grabbed the zombie. It was a man, a human wearing a hazmat suit with a gas mask. They could tell because the person was tall. They also told by his relentless fighting. The man pulled the zombie back and pushed it against the wall. He took out a weapon, a sickle or hook blade of some sort. The man shoved the hook deep into zombies throat and then pulled forward, raking the head clean off the zombie's shoulders. The corpse collapsed to the ground. Sonic and his friends watched in amazement and in horror man picked up the zombies head. He was wearing a backpack. He took the bag of his shoulders and took out a Geiger counter. It made a large buzzing noise as he ran a rod over the severed head.

"312 rpm." A soft voice said.

"What does that mean?" Cream said silently to Tails. The man dropped the counter and pilled out his sickle. He looked around. The sickle shaking in his hand. The man did not see them there, on the count of the bunker being so dark and since they were all in the darkest corner of the room. Sonic swallowed hard as he prepared to confront the man. He was the leader. He stepped out into the faint light and saw the humans before, but only from afar, they were bigger in person, much bigger.

"Who are you." The man said. His hands tightening the grip on the sickle.

"I'm...Sonic..." Sonic said with fear. He tried his best to set a good impression front of the human.

"You are not the voice I heard." The human growled, "Tell all survivors to come out, now." One by one, they began emerging from the shadows. All of them hungry, and skinny. The man saw this right away and no matter how many things he's killed, he still had a heart.

"Have you all been eating..." The man's voice trailed out.

"No..." Blaze moaned in reply. The man couldn't just stay there, he had a plan.

"Come with me, all of you." The man began to climb up the hatch of the pit. He turned back and notice how no one has followed him. He went into his bag and tossed them...a sandwich! They all began to run for the food as the ripped it to shreds. They had eaten the food faster then Sonic could run.

"There is more where that came from."

They all began to follow him, hesitant at first but soon enough, they began to keep up with him. Then, almost out of nowhere, a bus! It was an old Transit bus. The windows bordered up and the doors jammed open. The man climbed onto the bus and signaled everyone to get on with him. They all did and to there surprise, food. Containers of prison food lined the inside of the bus. Stacked on chairs and under seats were boxes and boxes of food, prison food, but food none the less. The man took of the helmet and revealed his face. He had dirty blond hair, blue eyes with wire frame glasses around them. He had tan skin as well. They all stared at him.

"You could take some crates." The man said, "Or you could come with me back to my base."

They all looked at each other.

"I think we should" Blaze and Sally agreed.

"We shouldn't trust him." Shadow argued, "We shouldn't trust anyone."

"Show of hands," Sonic whispered, "Raise if we stay with him." Everyone except for shadow raised their hand. Sonic looked at the man, who was now sitting in the driver's seat.

"Great!" The man smiled, "My name is Joey." He introduced himself to everyone, welcoming them as if they were his own.

"Buckle up everyone." Joey said as he pulled keys from his bag and then turned the engine on, " The roads aren't what they used to be." They watched as Joey drove away from the kingdom, the old bunker fading away in the distance.


	2. Decontamination

The grinding of the engine seemed to last as Joey drove through the endless wasteland, it almost seemed as if the humming engine put a silence to everything else. The bus was huge compared to Sonic and his friends. It was a human made bus, designed for human use only. Sonic was roughly five feet, Joey was reaching seven foot. All of a sudden Joey's foot slammed the brakes. Everyone stopped and starred at Joey who began to get out of his chair and slowly began to walk towards him.

"Why did ve stop?" Antoine said with fear in his voice. Joey began to make hand motions, sign language. Fortunate for them, it was mandatory for Blaze and Sally to learn both sign and braille. Royal education school was pretty rough back then. Sally began to translate.

"Keep quiet," Sally mumbled, "Horde outside."

A zombie horde crossing. All of them glanced out the broken windshield of the bus and to their terror, a mass of maybe hundreds of zombies began to cross their path, some straying to walk in a circle or two, but never to long to stray from the horde, almost by instinct. Joey began to sign again.

"Lift your seat Tails." Sally said. Tails lifted the seat cushion and discovered a gun. It looked sleek and efficient, but powerful in dealing out fast rounds of damage. It was something that the Seal Team 6 might have used during their raid. It was a small sub machine gun or the HK MP7a1. Tails immediately back away from the seat, thinking of what could happen if the gun could have suddenly fired a round while Joey was driving. Joey took the gun out, along with a few rounds and his Hazmat suit helmet. He put them both on and slowly opened the door to the bus, the door making a faint squeaking sound. He signed once more.

"I'll be back after a quick..." He searched for the right sign, "Decontamination." He grabbed his sickle and began outside. Then he pointed his gun in the air and fired a round. At that, every infect in the horde began to turn around. "Hey meat bags!" He yelled, his voice nearly muffled by his gas mask. He began to take off, the zombie horde following him, he got a safe distance away from the bus until...a click was heard as Joey turned off the safety. The gun made a "Tictictictic" sound as Joey fired 20 rounds before reloading, just to fire another 20. After the carnage was over, Joey still had about 284 bullets to spare, he walked over to the bus and hopped back into the drivers seat. He turned around and smiled as he took off his Hazmat helmet. Everyone just stared back, with nearly terrorized expressions on their face, they were never going to un-see what had just happened, brains of the dead, blood gushing as if the people were still alive, zombie or not the experience was still traumatizing. Joey smile faded into a look of self disappointment, he breathed heavily and began to start the bus.

"I'm...sorry you had to witness that..." Joey said as he adjusted his wire frame glasses.

"Thank you..." Antoine mumbled, his voice almost ensuring.

"Excuse me?" Joey turned as he slowly stopped the bus.

"Thank you...for getting rid of zose...monsters..." He smiled at Joey. Joey's face began to bloom into a weak smile, it felt good for someone to say thank you.

"My...pleasure..." Joey said as he started the buss again. Everyone began to smile, slowly but surely eventually a conversation brakes out and they begin to familiarize, Joey told more about himself to Sonic and his friends, the good things, the bad things, and the things about his life before the bombing. Joey was 21 years old. (Sonic, Sally, Blaze, Antoine, and Silver were 20. Rouge and Knuckles were 22. Shadow was 86, even though he still looked about 17, and Tails and Cream were both 18) Joey had a normal life but, eventually things took a turn for the worst with the bombings, but even after them he managed well-ish. He hijacked a bus, found some guns in a gun shop, and set up a home base. After that, he just scavenged for 2 years until he found Sonic and his friends, and that is where he was today, talking with a bunch of civilians, on some jacked up bus, driving through the middle of a zombie apocalypse hell, and he was okay with it. He stopped the bus occasionally to help open a crate of food, but other wise he kept driving. As for Sonic, he was still uneasy. Sonic was never comfortable around humans, mostly because their resemblance to overlanders, but now he felt...safe in a way. According to the stories he heard, humans were cruel and merciless, killing off entire species for their own enjoyment, but those were just...stories. Now Sonic was face to face with a human, and he didn't seem like some sort of killer, sure he just blew the heads of zombies but those people had already died. The gears in Sonic's head began to turn, thoughts poured in and out of his mind, wondering what would happen next and what might happen if he ditched the group, it was all a matter of choices that Sonic couldn't afford to screw up on, so he just put on a smile, was thankful for the full bowl of prison food he was eating a for once, had a full meal. Then, after about a 30 minute drive, the bust finally pulled to a stop.

"We're here." Joey smiled. It was a store, well it was a store until Joey arrived, now it was a barrack, traps laid out all over the entrance with hooks and spears and lining cages with small rats and mice inside. The rats acted as bait and the spears would impale any zombie that tried to reach the rat and it looked like Joey needed to clean the traps. But Sonic and his friends had a feeling about this place, it felt different from some run down store, it felt safe. Joey stepped down out of the bus and Sonic looked at Joey with hope in his eyes. Joey just smiled and stared back.

"My home is your home, Sonic."


	3. The Store

The store was small on the outside, but it was seemingly huge on the inside. Rows of cold freezer food lined up in freezers, even though the power was off the freezer stayed pretty cool. Sonic and his friends stared in aw at how well the store had converted from a small building into a full out shelter and base camp. Joey had turned the place into something out of the walking dead. All of the food was packed in the freezer, while any gun he had was tucked onto produce shelves, and Joey had a lot of guns. Ranging from tiny pocket pistols to even things that they used during WWII. They were all put onto shelves neatly, some of them even had labels next to them. But they weren't the names of the guns, they were the names of the things Joey used them for. A small pistol had the label: "In case one of them comes to close.", a shotgun had the label: "If a few of them get close." , then Joey's sub-machine gun, the one Joey had on the bus was labeled, "For road trips only." and then some big weapon, a rifle maybe, had the label: "Crowd control" Joey put the gun back into the place where it belonged. But then he noticed something. There was a gun missing, a pistol was not where it should be. Then, Joey heard breathing, it wasn't coming from Sonic because it was from the other side of the room. It was nervous breathing, someone else was here, an intruder. Joey reached for a shotgun, even if the label said otherwise.

"Everyone quiet" Joey began walking towards the breathing. The breathing increased sounding more and more nervous with every step Joey took. Then, out of the dark corner of the room, a hedgehog bolted running as fast as sound. He tried to bolt out the exit, but in a hurry, just missing the door and ramming into a wall. The hedgehog stumbled back and nearly fainted from the impact. He got up in a dizzy mess and stared at Joey, the barrel of the shotgun staring the hedgehog in the face. The hedgehog was green, with blue eyes, and an old ripped leather jacket. The hedgehog put his hands up in the air. Almost with tears forming in his eyes.

"Okay...please don't hurt me." The hedgehog squealed. Joey stared into the hedgehogs eyes, he could see the years of pain since the bomb had gone off, the hedgehog was already an outcast before the bomb, but now he was truly alone. Joey also had a life before the bombs, he wasn't the man he told everyone he was. The hedgehog and Joey were very much alike.

"What do you need." Joey said coldly, his voice almost emotionless.

"I...need..." The hedgehog began to tear up, he couldn't admit that he needed not only food, but he needed someone else. Joey may have been strong and tough, but his heart was three times the size of his strength. But for everyone else, their hearts toward the hedgehog were rock solid. They knew who the hedgehog was, and they despised him. It was Scourge the hedgehog, one of Sonic's arch enemies. But Joey took no note of that, he pulled scourge back on tho his feet, but Scourge refused to let go of his hand, in fact he hugged Joey. But before scourge could say anything, Knuckles grabbed Scourge and pushed him back, Scourge fell back against the wall and believe it or not, began to tear up again. Knuckles noticed this but simply dismissed it.

"Stay away from that guy." Knuckles warned.

"Why?" Joey said as he released himself from Knuckles' grip, "He needs help."

"It doesn't matter." Tails budded in, "He can't be trusted."

"He's done numerous horrible things before the zombies!" Amy complained, "imagine if he is with us now."

Everyone began to glare and complain about Scourge. In all the mess Scourge even stood up and tried to get away from the jeers, but then Joey grabbed his hand and pulled him next to him. Scourge's face blushed a light shade of red.

"Shut up!" Joey yelled over the commotion. Joey realized how loud he had yelled, the entire store had shook, "A wise man once said to me...the weak can not forgive, an act of forgiveness is what makes someone strong." Everyone went silent. Scourge was now hugging Joey, only a tiny five foot mobian hugging as seven foot human. Everyone couldn't help but listen to Joey. "He needs us now more than anyone will ever need us." Then Joey looked back down at Scourge. "What do you need." Joey's voice now as caring as ever, "Are you with anyone."

Scourge's face began to tear up again, but this time he managed to speak, "No. I am alone...and I need anything...food, shelter water..." Joey nodded at every word scourge said.

"You are welcome to stay with us." He looked at everyone and then at Scourge, "As long as you keep us out of trouble." Scourge nodded his face bloomed into a smile. Joey looked at everyone else and nodded. They all just crossed their arms and looked away. Scourge just smiled and hugged Joey. Something had changed about Scourge. Before, he would never hug a man, or anyone for that matter, but now he seemed to melt right on to Joey. He seemed a little bit more...affectionate. Maybe Scourge had changed, or maybe he was going to stab all of them in the back yet another time. It was yet another choice that Sonic and his friends weren't ready to take, but they would have to any way. Joey brought Scourge to one of the freezers that lined the stores walls. He opened up a freezer and pulled out a bowl of prison food, it looked like oatmeal, but tasted like beef jerky. Turns out that Scourge was supposed to be tasting chicken soup. That's prison food for you, never know what you are eating until you swallow it. But Scourge was grateful anyway. Joey had taken him in just like he had done with Sonic and his friends. Scourge swallowed down the last of his "Soup" and then stared at Joey. Who was now teaching Tails how the safety on a pistol worked. Scourge felt warm inside, like for once in his life, had someone who he could call a friend. Scourge than looked at Sonic, who was also observing Joey's lessons on fire arm safety. The warm feeling went away, and was replaced with fear, but Scourge would have to take the good with the bad. He stood up put his bowl back in the fridge, and went to sit down to listen to the gun lesson.


	4. The dream

Joey had organized beds. They were cots he had pulled from a local prison. It was also the place were he had got the food. He had seven cots, and no blankets. He already knew that the number of people and the number of cots, was certainly a problem. Joey found a solution of course, he just had two people sleep in one cot. Joey even took his old clothes and supplied them as blankets. Sonic and his friends decided who they slept with, and of course it was a challenge finding someone to share with Scourge, but eventually, Antoine took the "Gruesome" task. It was late now, and almost everyone was asleep. Everyone except for Joey. He seemed to take extra precautions. He sat in a wooden chair, watching all of them someone shifted in their sleep, he would hear, if someone woke up scared, he would comfort them, it was almost like Joey was a guardian to everyone, or maybe even closer than a guardian, he was...Joey. Eventually, almost everyone had gotten up once, and then went back to sleep. Even shadow asked for a hug, and that was a milestone for Joey. It was one in the morning now. Then Antoine began shifting in his sleep, he began moaning and even braking out in cold sweat. He was dreaming, dreaming of his old life...

_Antoine walked through the grassy field, the small flowers just beginning to bloom as the soft spring sun arose, the field was dim in the dawn of the morning. He smiled. Everything was as it should be, no zombies, no bombs, and no...Joey... _

The simple thought of the human began a raging change in Antoine's mind, now he was dreaming of everything that is, instead of everything that should be.

_The grass began to singe, and the sky turned grey. Antoine looked up and saw a rocket, an Eggman symbol strapped right onto its side. The rocket met the ground and greeted it with a collateral explosion. Everything was induced with the zombie chemical, mixed with the charged blast of the impact itself, the particles touched everything, leaving nothing uninfected except the bunkers that the Mobians hid in, it was the end of civilization. Antoine looked down at the world he now knew. He closed his eyes and everything went black..._

Antoine woke up in cold sweat, gasping for air. He could feel the coldness of the air around him, the dimness of the dawn sun met his eyes, he looked around to notice the everyone else was still asleep, everyone except Joey. Antoine starred at him, he didn't move for fear that Joey might hear him, he attempted to go back to sleep but the thought of the explosion still crept in his mind, he also began thinking of other things, like Bunny. A tear crept down his cheek as the thought of his wife no longer being with him haunted his mind. It was impossible to escape.

"I know you're awake." Joey's voice was scratchy with exhaustion. He was still sitting in the same wooden chair as before, except now he was turned away from them, "Their is really no point to hide it." Antoine for a few seconds, wondering how he could have possibly heard him. Then Joey turned around and spoke once more, "I heard the teardrop. Is everything okay?" Antoine finally managed to sit up in bed, he looked at Joey now with a small trail of tears from his eyes.

"I miss my wife..." He said. His voice trailed out, becoming more and more heavy-heartened with every breath. Joey stood up and walked over to Antoine, he was holding a knife in his hand. He sat down by Antoine. He looked dead into his eyes. Joey's eyes told a story, the story of a man who had nothing to begin with, and nothing now. Joey had storm grey eyes covered by wire frame glasses. Antoine's eyes told the story of a man with hopes and dreams, and losses. The two managed only to stare at each other until Antoine broke the silence.  


"How do you...manage?" Antoine's voice was shy, as if he was talking to a giant.

"I forget things." Joey's voice was cold. "There's no point to wallow in the past for no reason. If you hold on to something too long, chances are that it's going to be lost, either by it being broken...or it dying...I find no reason to hold on to things that won't aid me in the future, so I advise that you do the same." Joey looked down at Antoine, the little coyote's face was ready to burst into tears, but he wouldn't cry in front of Joey, not after what he heard. Joey took a breath in.

"You're not a very brave one are you." Usually Antoine would jump right up an "defend his honor" but now, he just couldn't.

"No, I am not brave...I am only a dreamer..." Antoine's voice was tearing up again.

"Then I will help you learn." Joey said, he handed him a knife, it was an old combat knife and it looked like it was used, a lot. "Sonic told me you were good with swords, but this is the closest thing I have to one." Antoine looked at the knife, the blade glimmered and stained with faded blood. The knife looked like it had been cleaned. "I tried to clean it of for you." Antoine's eyes watered at the gift. He set the knife on the ground near his bed. He then looked back at Joey and fell into his arms, burying his head into Joey's chest.

"You are the nicest man in all of Mobius!" he wept into Joey's arms. "You give us food, you give us shelter, you protect us!" The little coyote glanced and met Joey's storm grey eyes. "And you're so gentle with us." The silence after that was a calming silence as Antoine fell asleep in Joey's arms. Now, even though he was dreaming of the things that are, he still had a smile on his face.

_Antoine sat in the wooden chair. He played with the knife as he watched everyone eat. A smile emerged on his face as he saw everyone eat their food. Even Joey was sitting down and enjoying the breakfast. Then Sonic put down his fork and glanced at Antoine._

_"Hey Ant!" Sonic smiled, "Come join us!" _

_The same shy smile on the coyote's face was that of peace. He left his knife on the wooden chair, the blade glistening in the dim light._

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Hey guys! Sorry for not updating in a long time but here it is, please leave any reviews (Constructive criticism wanted!) and YES I will accept any OCs. So until next time, see ya!


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